One Week Down

With one week down, I was ready for a more relaxed day and what could be better than a trip to the new Rome Temple. Since there wasn't a metro easily available which would take us to the temple, we got taxis. Some girls went to a beach town, some girls did baptisms, and a few of us did an endowment session. When we arrived, it was the most perfect weather. I was surprised at how empty the grounds were! Honestly, they did an incredible job on the grounds of the temple. Olive trees and roses decorated the landscape. I really loved the visitors center; I have a friend who had a hand in painting the mural behind the sculptures of Christ and the apostles (which are okay'd replicas of the original sculptures from Northern Europe). She did one of the sheep; what an incredible opportunity to have worked on even just a portion of the temple. 

It was special to experience the temple in another language. I tried to understand as much of the experience as I could in Italian, but I kept the translating headset over one ear. Unfortunately, Duolingo does not teach a lot of religious Italian lingo early on in the lessons. Maybe if I practiced a little more then I'd be able to get by. It was also cool to attend a session with a bunch of my friends and my professor and his wife. What a beautiful opportunity.

After the temple and some more pizza (I think I've had pizza almost every day this week), a group of us checked out the Ara Pacis. The Ara Pacis is an alter dedicated to the Roman goddess of Peace. It's a pretty big deal because the outside frieze relief sculpture features an identifiable group of people in a procession. It includes people of just about all ages, which is uncommon. In addition, it is beautifully realistic compared to that Constantine wildness.

It was a shorter day, which was nice compared to the top speeds we were traveling earlier this week to try and see everything. I'm excited to see what the week has to offer. As always, post in the comments if there are any questions or anything you want to know.